Cecilia Battaini is an artist, illustrator and surface designer based in Milan, Italy. She calls herself a flower in the midst of flowers, because they are the main subject of her patterns and illustrations – alongside animals, mushrooms, vegetables, fruits and every kind of plants. Her art is the expression of her inner garden and she both works on commissions and licenses her flowers to many brands.
Drawing flowers started as a therapy, while as a teenager she was going through very difficult times. Self-taught as illustrator, she found out the world of patterns while studying Fashion Design at Istituto Marangoni in Milan. During this experience, she began scanning her hand-drawn flowers with colored pencils and arranging them digitally into patterns for textiles and many other products. To this day she still creates her floral compositions in this way. She specialized in textile and surface design, and after her degree also attended courses at Central Saint Martins in London.
After working for a few years in the fashion industry, she began freelancing part-time until 2020, when because of the pandemic she lost her job. Now she works both as freelance, licensing her creations or creating original art for brands, and for her own brand, making paintings printing on fabric out her patterns, art prints and calendars and exhibiting them in art galleries, public events and shops.
Her main inspiration comes from the flora she meets during her travels or while walking through the city, and eventually she collects her creations in collections named after her travels and experiences.
“Flowers look vulnerable and delicate, but actually they are incredibly resistant creatures. Travelling, I saw them growing in the midst of the desert, among the rocks, and in other places where life doesn’t seem possible. I feel a deep connection with this image, because I can picture myself in it. Like everyone of us, during my lifetime I went through a lot. Sometimes, I find difficult to believe I am still here and have been able to grow like a flower, among all these adversities.
Everything I feel come to life through my flowers. That is why I call my art my inner garden. It contains all my thoughts, feelings and dreams. They grow like flowers inside myself, creating a blooming and thriving garden. It’s the expression of my inner self.
But, what I believe most, is that we have possess a garden inside ourselves. Every one of us goes through pain and sufferings during their own lives. We all have traumas and scars. But we are also able to go on with our lives and to grow beautifully. We should take care and nurture our inner selves. With my creations, I hope to give comfort and healing – the same feelings I experience while making art – and to help every one being aware of that lush garden inside of them.
This is also the reason why I’m particularly drawn to products like home decors and wallpapers, enjoying seeing my art featured on them. Because there isn’t a better place than our homes and the places we feel comfortable in to express and grow our inner garden.”
? Simone Sangalli